feather tapping
by swanfrost
Summary: [Post war/AU-ish] Old wounds heal slowly. Trust is difficult to obtain. Sasuke wonders if everything is worth it, and Sai just wants a friend. (no pairings)
**feather-tapping**

Summary: [Post war/AU-ish] Old wounds heal slowly. Trust is difficult to obtain. Sasuke wonders if everything is worth it, and Sai just wants a friend. (no pairings)

Notes: This was written before the end of Naruto happened, so do treat it as canon-divergent. Sasuke returns to Konoha and stays. Neji is still dead, and everyone counts Sai as one of the 12. Tsunade is still Hokage. Chapter 700 doesn't exist.

For Jennifer, even though this is a million years late and idk if you'll ever see this. Thanks for sticking with me for a good two thirds of this thing, even if we never talk anymore.

* * *

He stands on the edge of a cliff that looks over the sea, his back facing a thick grove of trees that stretches on for miles and miles. The cliff, jutted and steep, looms over the ocean like a hooked claw, dangerous and foreboding. An evening wind blows through, ruffling his hair, bringing with it the sharp tang of sea water. Dark eyes quietly watch the sunset, taking in the splash of bright colors and relaxing in the sense of peace that hangs in the air.

For a while, there is nothing, nothing but a calm silence interrupted only by the steady crashing of the waves against the rocky cliff he stands upon. It stretches on, a soothing lullaby compared to tortured war cries that still haven't faded, even with the Fourth Shinobi War years behind him. Suddenly, the soft fluttering of wings breaks the fragile silence, and the shadow of a large hawk passes over him.

Sasuke watches as his summon glides in a slow, lazy circle, the fearsome animal silhouetted darkly against the fading sunset. As the hawk swoops down in a deadly dance, Sasuke finds himself thinking that he prefers his hawk summons over his snake summons- for the hawks do not blindly follow his every command, for the hawks are wiser than he will ever be, and sometimes, he drinks in their wisdom, if only to pay back his sins, even a little.

On the horizon, the hawk catches a draft, soaring upward, wings spread majestically. His feathertips quiver as the wind rushes over them, and he glides smoothly through the stream of air. And then, the hawk hangs in midair, sharp talons glinting in the dying sun, before he spirals down, landing softly on Sasuke's outstretched arm.

"Taka," the Uchiha greets the summon, who has fluttered off his arm and settles on the ground beside him.

The hawk fixes the boy with a hard look, golden eyes boring into black ones. Sasuke stills, watching as the large hawk shudders, brown feathers glistening in the sun. Without warning, the bird takes to the skies again, letting loose a sharp battle cry that echoes uselessly over the waves below.

And then, the feathers begin to fall. Sasuke, already used to the sight of his summon molting, pays little attention to the soft plumage that falls all around him.

"Boy," Taka rasps, landing a little less gracefully before, "You seem troubled." He stretches out a great wing, brown laced with black and spotted with white, and begins to preen himself, old feathers tumbling to the ground.

Boy and partner stand in silence for a while. Sasuke has closed his eyes, a look of pure concentration flashing over his face, as if trying to string words together into sentences. Taka notices this and watched his master carefully, dragging out the silence for a few minutes before letting out a soft huff.

"Little one, the war is long over," he says this as he inspects his wing closely, glancing at Sasuke out of the corner of his eye. "You seem as if the war never ended."

Sasuke draws in a quick breath, all sorts of emotions tumbling around inside him, and he feels like he can't make heads or tails of anything. "I-"

Only to be smacked with an oversized wing. Sasuke stumbles back, holding his face in mock pain. "Not another word, boy," the hawk says. He stretches out the other wing, peering through slitted yellow eyes before he reaches forward and begins to preen, curved beak combing meticulously through the plumes.

As the last Uchiha watches, brow furrowed and hands clenched, his summon plucks out a large feather from his wing. It dangles from a hooked beak, bobbing slightly with the wind. Without a word, Taka places the feather into Sasuke's outstretched hand. Later, the boy would wonder as he runs slender fingers over the smooth surface, when had he moved to accept it?

"Solve your own problems," Taka says, fixing his piercing gaze onto his master's dark eyes, "It shouldn't be that hard."

With those parting words, the hawk snaps open his wings and shoots upwards, looping around once, twice, before disappearing into the dense forest.

Sasuke watches his summon fade into the trees, feather clenched tightly in his hand.

-/-

Even after Lord Danzo's death and the end of the war, Sai has stayed in his old apartment. There are a million and one reasons he could move into something else, a house that doesn't feel cramped or have paint stripping off the walls, but for some odd reason, he doesn't. Maybe it's because of the familiarity of the room, the way he knows every entrance and exit, the way he knows where everything's supposed to be.

Maybe, maybe it's because of the multitude of paintings that decorate the otherwise plain walls, landscapes and portraits and sketches and pastels that once bore no name. Once.

After the war, with the return of Uchiha Sasuke, Sai finds himself pushed away from Team 7. That was the way it should be, he'd think, absentmindedly rolling a paintbrush between his fingers. He was never part of Team 7 anyways.

But, maybe he'd been the one doing all the pushing.

After a few polite refusals, Naruto had kicked down his apartment door and dragged him away; all while giving a long winded lecture about friendship and camaraderie, and it fills his ANBU heart with a strange warmth he's only experienced a few times before. It is around that time that he begins to give his artwork titles.

It is also around that time he meets Uchiha Sasuke officially. Not as a Leaf nin against a missing nin, but as fellow shinobi.

The boy, or man, seeing that all of them were well over the age of twenty, is the dictionary definition of anti-social, Sai decides. While Naruto jabbers on and on, Sasuke rarely says a word, and to most people, it seemed as if he wasn't listening at all. Honestly, even though Naruto holds Sasuke in such high esteem, Sai doesn't see anything good in that quiet, broody, unemotional shinobi.

But, for the sake of Naruto, he tries.

One day, after another night out with Team 7 and co., Sai spots Sasuke lingering by an alleyway, shadows masking the Uchiha's face. He's looking upwards at the nighttime sky, eyes unfocused. Nodding to himself, Sai approaches Sasuke, a smile that he feels isn't too fake gracing his face.

"Hello Sasuke-kun," the ROOT member greets, flashing a small smile. The ex-missing nin only huffs in response.

Sai is undeterred. He pauses, trying to remember a pointer from one of the many books he's scoured through. "How have you been?" he offers.

There is a barely noticeable movement in the Uchiha, a twitch of the shoulders, perhaps.

Sai takes a deep breath. No point in beating around the bush now. He draws in a quick breath and unknowingly drops the fake smile, replacing it with a look of genuine seriousness. "Sasuke-kun," he begins, and for the first time, Sasuke meets his eyes, as if looking for a challenge.

There isn't one.

"We should be friends." There. He's said it. The feeling of hope that suddenly wells up inside him throws him off guard for a moment. It goes against all of his ROOT training, all of his very being, but then again, Naruto goes against all of what ROOT and ANBU stand for, so what's there to loose?

He thinks he sees Sasuke's lips curl up a tiny bit, in disgust or amusement, Sai doesn't know. Then, the nin turns and walks away, leaving Sai alone in the middle of the street.

Sai is undeterred.

-/-

After the tenth offer, Sasuke thinks the artist nin is crazy. It's been a week already, and almost every night Sai has managed to corner him, asking the same question over and over- although phrased in different ways every time.

After the twenty fifth offer, Sasuke begins to feel a twinge inside his gut. Hope? Nah, he was Uchiha Sasuke for goddamn sake. With a huff, he'd rudely turned around and stalked away, leaving Sai alone under a flickering lamp post. He ignores the confused look a passerby shoots him.

After the fortieth offer, Sasuke can't help but pause before storming off, taking in the serious glint of the artist's eyes, the way Sai's fists are clenched tightly, unknowingly, the way the fire dances in his eyes. And then the Uchiha pivots on his heel and shoots off the rooftop, a feeling akin to guilt pressing hard against his chest.

After the fiftieth, why is he still counting, Sasuke pulls away from Sai's outstretched hand as if poison laced the artist's fingers. He sees the hurt in the other's eyes, the confusion, the worry. And by this point, the guilt weighs down heavily on his soul, but Sasuke has a disease, an ailment called pride, and he doesn't take the offered hand. He flees, feeling Sai's eyes follow him until he disappears behind a building.

That night, he slips quietly into his home, grabs a dark travelling cloak, scrawls out a quick note for Naruto: going on a quick trip to clear my mind, I'll be back within the week, and makes a beeline for the gates.

The genin, but already past jonin level, easily slips through the barrier, leaping into the forest beyond. By his calculations, it'll take three days to reach the shore where Taka lives. If he presses hard, two days will suffice. Sasuke grits his teeth and channels more chakra in his feet.

He leaves with the intention of sorting out his ego, but he returns with nothing but a few harsh words and a long feather tucked in his pockets.

Of course, once he returns, the Hokage is immediately on his case, Naruto wants every little detail of his journey to "clear his mind", and Sakura shakes her head at him, telling him to be more careful.

Sai doesn't say anything, but merely looks at him with questioning eyes. Sasuke ignores all of them, running his fingers absentmindedly along the feather still stuck in his pocket.

-/-

Kakashi corners Sai soon after.

"Good luck," the masked ninja says brightly, shoving a bright orange book into Sai's hands.

Confused, Sai blinks down at the object. Kakashi beams.

"Sasuke needs more friends," the fearsome copy-nin declares. "And, as an official member of Team 7, it's your duty to become friends with him."

Sai wonders if Kakashi is crazy. The jonin merely gives him a cheeky thumbs up.

-/-

About a week after Sasuke's return, Sai finds himself sitting on the flat roof of his apartment, a painting easel propped up in front of him. He's facing the Hokage tower, a beautiful orange and red sunset shimmering behind it. The musky tang of acrylic paint reaches his nose, but he's already used to the various smells of art mediums. Today, fueled on by the urge to do something artistic, he's set up a whole array of paints around him and the canvas, absentmindedly twirling his paintbrushes like kunai between his fingers. He's not thinking as he dips a thick brush into paint, swiping across the blank canvas. The paintbrush leaves a trail of red behind.

In the end, with the sunset long gone and a bright moon hanging low in the night sky, Sai realizes his artwork is nothing but a mess of colors- reds and oranges and yellows and blues, streaks of black and grey along with splatters of greens and purples. With an amused look, he gingerly picks the canvas up, neatly packing up his supplies before slipping back into his room.

He decides to name this artwork "Obscurity".

The next day, Sai wakes up as the sun is peeking over the horizon, washing the morning sky a gentle orange. After he eats a quick breakfast, he notes that his fridge is near empty, and decides to take an early morning stroll through the markets.

Except for the birdsong that fills the air, the morning is relatively quiet. The shops around the marketplace are just starting to open their doors, the soft hum of activity beginning to stream through open windows. A few early risers have already begun to weave their way around the shops. It's in front of a vegetable store that he sees Uchiha Sasuke hovering over the produce section.

A snippet from one of the relationship books he's read echoes in his mind. Something about greeting the person in question when happening to pass them by. It leaves a good impression, the book had said. So, Sai places his box of tofu into his basket and walks up to Sasuke, who hears him coming and fixes him with a glare.

"Good morning," Sai greets with a somewhat fake smile, nodding at the shinobi who huffs in response. They stand in an awkward silence for a minute, and just as Sai is about to open his mouth again, Sasuke cuts him off.

"Naruto told me to tell you that we're meeting at the restaurant tonight," he says stiffly, turning so his back faces Sai. His back is tensed, spine rigid, but for some reason, he gives off an air of indifference. Sasuke reaches out, placing a bag of tomatoes into his basket and adds, "He says to be there by 8."

Then, he reaches into his pocket at pulls out some cash, placing the money on the counter before turning sharply and storming out the shop.

Sai is frozen for a moment, silently processing the situation in front of him. His ANBU mind kicks in, forcing his body out of the sudden paralysis. As he watches Sasuke's retreating back, a smile tugs at his lips.

He doesn't even know it.

-/-

On the rare days that the remaining Konoha 12 (plus Sai) are home, without missions or training sessions, Naruto likes to round all of them up for dinner and a drink or two, although in most cases these nights end up with a trashed restaurant, a bunch of drunk shinobi , and a restaurant owner who's given up on kicking the youngsters out.

Provided that they clean up after themselves, of course.

Tonight is one of those nights. Kiba, Hinata, and Shikamaru returned from a mission only a few days ago, and after the required check in at the hospital passed smoothly, Naruto had immediately made arrangements, sending out a message to all of the Konoha 12.

It's past midnight, at least, Sai muses as he ignores the loud music that thunders in the background. Naruto is chatting animatedly with Kiba, arms sweeping out in exaggerated motions as he tries to make a point. Over in the corner, Tenten is keeping a close eye on Lee, making sure he doesn't touch even a drop of sake.

A few booths in front of him, Sakura, Hinata, and Ino are seated, their plates long cleared away as they chat on about what Sai can only assume are "girl things". The others are scattered around the restaurant, nursing drinks, conversing, and generally having a good time. Sai knows he should be in the fray too, but he's content with just observing.

A shadow of sorts sweeps by him, but as he tenses up, he realizes it's just Sasuke - the Uchiha has a peeved look on his face, but he seems calm enough. Sai relaxes, and manages to hide his surprise well enough when Sasuke pulls out a chair and sits down.

At this point, Sai can read people well enough to know that Sasuke has something to say, so he falls silent, watching the man across from him carefully.

Sasuke's face is impassive, barely a hint of emotion showing. An awkward silence stretches out, and even with the background noise of conversation and music, Sai feels a deafening silence fall between them. He's about to open his mouth and say something, a witty remark, a flawless insult, anything, but Sasuke beats him to it.

"Naruto is too loud," he says, black eyes focusing on his rambunctious teammate, "and the hawks are a pain in the ass."

Sai raises an eyebrow at the end, but doesn't comment, seeing that Sasuke has more to say. However, Sasuke is silent, and Sai watches as he slips a hand into his pocket and tugs out a feather, holding it out to him.

Sai's eyes widen slightly. Not because Sasuke , of all people is actually giving him something, or because the feather is actually really nice - its' long and curved, soft plumage glistening under the lights, black fringes bordering different shades of brown - but because it's been turned into a pen - a quill pen.

Sai's made quill pens himself before, although finding good feathers was always the hardest part. The quill Sasuke holds out to him now is masterfully crafted, Sai realizes, probably made with extreme chakra control, steady hands, and thin blades.

Sasuke's propped his chin onto his hand, turned away from Sai, looking over the crowd as the feather dangles from his fingers.

The atmosphere between them is stifling, and so Sai decides this is an appropriate time to crack a joke. "Are you proposing to me?" he asks with a completely straight face, amusement underlying his words.

Sasuke's eyes shift over to glare at him, and Sai has a stifle a grin. "Fuck you," the Uchiha scoffs, but there is no poison behind his voice, no malice in his eyes.

"….We should be friends," he finally says, refusing to meet Sai's eyes. He's still holding out the feather, and his whole body is tense, as if in a fight or flight stance.

If Sai didn't know any better, he'd say that Sasuke was embarrassed. And, because Sai does not quite know how to respond to the sudden declaration, he decides to be an ass - it's always gotten him out of sticky situations before.

"So, is that a proposal or not?" he says, the beginnings of a smile tugging up his lips.

The chair makes a loud screeching noise as it scrapes across the floor. Sasuke's stood up, a scowl marring his face, and without another word, he chucks the quill pen at Sai and storms off, leaving Sai alone with a beautiful feather, a new companion, and a strange urge to laugh.

-/-

As the days pass, Sai finds himself immersed in back to back missions, some ANBU, some not. From the ANBU grapevine, he hears that some incidences along the border of the Lightning country have been wearing the treaty thin, even despite Naruto and Tsunade's efforts.

It's not that surprising, he muses one night as he carefully locks his apartment door, re-doing the traps and wards he'd neutralized upon entering. After all, the Raikage was never known for patience.

As he steps into his living room, he strips his bloodstained ANBU uniform, shrugging off his sword and setting his art scroll and brush carefully on his table. Reaching down into his supply bag, his fingers brush against something soft. Pausing for a moment, he runs over a mental weapons list before coming to the realization that it's the quill pen Sasuke had given him a week ago.

Sasuke. Sai believes the two of them are on better terms now, and from the descriptions his books give, he thinks that they could be called "friends". Naruto had puffed up like a proud mama bird when Sai had told him that, a big grin lighting up his face as he sobbed happily. Something about Sai finally getting his head out of his ass, and Sasuke finally crawling out of his angsty hellhole and seeing the light.

Yeah. Sai doesn't really get it either.

He gently takes the feather out, running calloused fingers over the black fringe before placing it next to his art supplies. He hasn't used it yet, and the quill has been sitting at the bottom of his art bag for days now. Fighting the urge to begin sketching, Sai stumbles towards the bathroom to clean himself up.

After a shower and after scrubbing his clothes clean of blood, he slumps down onto his couch, fatigue settling into his body. It's at least midnight, and tomorrow he'll need to turn in a mission report, which will probably be followed with another assignment. The smart, sensible thing to do right now would be to sleep, but despite his tiredness, Sai feels restless too.

It was easier before, he thinks, before these things called emotions and friendships and bonds came crashing into his life. Before, it was a repetitive burn of mission, report, rest, mission, report, rest.

But, he thinks, as he rolls over and stretches out his arm, taking hold of the feather that balances on his desk, but, maybe it's not so bad.

Then, he leans back and lays down, too tired to make the journey to his bed, and passes out on his couch, feather dangling from his fingertips before falling lightly to the floor.

The next day, Sai wakes up late - it's already midmorning and the streets below buzz with activity. When he opens his eyes, he's met with warm sunshine in his face, and he automatically raises a hand to ward off the offending rays. With a very un-ANBU like groan, he rolls off the couch and flops onto the floor.

Maybe Naruto is rubbing off on him.

After a quick breakfast and going through his morning routine, Sai sits down to begin his mission report, and it's only when he tries to sign his name off does he realize no ink is coming out. He'd stopped writing halfway down the paper, on account of his quill pen running out of chakra ink.

Quill pen?

He casts his gaze down to his hand, realizing suddenly that he's holding the feather, and then, on a completely unrelated train of thought, Sai realizes that he really likes the way the quill writes, the way the letters form out like complex calligraphy, beautiful and exquisite. However, that's not the way a mission report should be written, and Sai ruefully takes out a blank scroll and an actual black pen to rewrite his mission report.

Noon finds him in the Hokage's office, A-ranked mission reported and stowed away for the chuunin to archive. Evening has him dressed in ANBU gear, mask slipped onto his face, another A- rank under his belt as he shoots off into the forest. This time, it's a two week long information mission, a quick update on the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning, and the status of the minor lands in between.

In all aspects, it is a rather straightforward and simple mission, Sai thinks as he lightly bounces off a tree branch. It's definitely a lot better than the one he'd gone on two days ago- for if everything went well, he'd be in and out without having any unnecessary human contact.

Of course, the mission wasn't A-ranked for nothing.

A careless misstep and he'd accidentally tripped off an alarm, and in seconds, he'd found himself surrounded by furious guards, some with chakra, some just simple samurai. He hadn't even reached the halfway point between Fire and Lightning before he stumbled upon some rich guy's newly built estate.

 _Why wasn't this in the last report?_ he wonders as he halfheartedly slips his blade out of the sheath. Sai isn't really worried about these guards; he can feel the way their chakra fluctuates like a pre-genin's, can see the way the samurai shift nervously on the feet, as if uncertain of the ground underneath them. Amateurs, at best.

Stepping lightly into a fighting stance, Sai's eyes flick around quickly as he calculates escape routes and draws up battle plans, blank gaze never missing a detail.

The lead nin, a burly man with a black face mask stretched over his face, leaving only his eyes, steps up and speaks.

"Trespasser," he snarls, cracking his knuckles in a feeble attempt at intimidation, "State your name and purpose."

Sai almost laughs at the foolishness. Of course, he doesn't make a sound as he slides back a step, lowering his blade. To the samurai, he is slipping into a basic sword fighting stance, and one of the older samurai says as much.

"Speak!" the lead nin thunders, brandishing a kunai.

Sai quietly lets out a breath, and then, in a sudden swirl of chakra and ink, leaps up onto the roof. His porcelain mask glows a dull grey underneath the half moon, empty slits of eyes staring down at the rag-tag group below him.

He has his blade in his right hand and an inked paintbrush in his left. Whipping out a scroll, Sai crouches down, letting ink and chakra flow over the paper, and then, as the dragon roars and comes to life, he makes a hasty escape, leaving a terrorized group of mercenaries behind him.

Even as he's picking up his pace, reaching the borders of the estate, his chakra is spreading out, marking out a clear path for him to follow, and then, just as he thinks he's cleared the boundaries of the estate, a blinding pain rips through his shoulder. Sai yells out, tripping over a loose roof tile as blood begins to trickle down his right arm, and he falls to the floor.

The pain is numbing, sending painful sparks down his arm, and as Sai shuts down and ROOT kicks in, he registers the faint scent of poison wafting into the night air. A man's loud, hooting laughter cuts through the murky haze that is his current mind, and he realizes that it's the lead nin from before.

The nin's flimsy chakra façade falls away, replaced by a sharp, dangerous aura, and it rips through Sai, like shuriken ripping through a sheet of paper.

 _Relax_ , Sai tells himself as he evens out his breathing. _Steady._ Even as the nin approaches, voice filled with taunts and insults, Sai is unmoving, twitching his body here and there, quietly assessing his injury. The poison is slow acting, he thinks, slow but efficient. Already, his upper right arm is numb, and he doesn't think he can move his shoulder at all.

And then, just as the man, a shame to all ninja, reaches out an ink stained hand to rip off Sai's mask, Sai jerks his head upward before pushing off the ground backwards, towards the forest, towards the shadows. His instincts are screaming at him, telling him to flee, but Sai steels his nerves and leaps onto a tree branch, high above the nin and his lumbering companions.

Sai takes a bit of comfort in seeing their ink stained cloths and the claw like injures marked upon their skin.

Blank eyes sweep quickly over the estate, and he is filing down information in his head, doing a quick head count of mercenaries and taking note of the Lightning Country/Cloud Village banners that seem to be strung everywhere.

Once again, he wonders why this wasn't in the last report.

After one last calming breath, he leaps away, into the shadows of the forest.

-/-

He's stumbling now, as the faint rays of dawn peek over the horizon. The numbness has traveled down his right arm, all the way to the fingertips, leaving it useless. His left shoulder seems to be the poison's next target, as it has become painful to move.

Tripping over a gnarled root, Sai realizes that he's a mess.

ROOT training screams at him, tells him to bind his wounds and keep moving, for the mission is everything, the mission must be completed, the mission, _the mission!_ And for a moment, he considers unpacking his medical kit and unraveling the bandages, swallowing some painkillers and a soldier pill before continuing on his way.

Another part of him is whispering in his ear, _call off the mission, call for backup, haul that stupid ass of yours home._ It's so tempting, he thinks as his hand - left, mind you - travels to his scroll and paints. His arm is numb, the blood is dried and crusted and it's a real nasty smell, and his mind is fuzzy and his vision blurs. It's almost funny, Sai thinks in an almost delirious state, this entire internal argument is funny, hilarious, and he wants to laugh out loud, let loose the pressure that's been building in his chest.

He jams his hand into his supply bag, tugging out a scroll and a paintbrush. With a great effort, he manages to get into a sitting position, scroll laid out in front of him, paintbrush in between trembling fingers, but his mind refused to cooperate, and with a very uncharacteristic growl, Sai reaches into his bag again, intending to pull out a soldier pill.

His fingers brush against something soft, and it's not a paintbrush or a washcloth. Grimacing, he pulls awkwardly, bringing out a feather.

 _Oh,_ Sai thinks, rubbing the feather under his fingers, _Sasuke's present._

The quill pen is already filled, with a mixture of ink and chakra, and Sai has never been more grateful for anything. He shakily lowers the pen to paper, thanking Danzo, in a fit of deliriousness, for forcing him to learn to be ambidextrous.

It's a hastily scrawled out note in shaking, almost illegible handwriting, listing his name, ANBU codename, mission. A request for backup and medical attention is scribbled as an afterthought, along with a very unprofessional, bulleted list of information on the mysterious estate he'd stumbled upon.

Letting out a hacking cough as he scribbles a signature on the bottom, he doubles over and almost blacks out. But he can't, because that would spell failure, and _failure is unacceptable_. With a sort of renewed vigor, Sai lets his chakra flow into the parchment, watching with a fractured gaze as the ink swirls into a simple black and white bird, flapping once, twice, before spiraling off into the direction Sai hopes is Konoha.

Fighting off a throbbing headache, Sai manages to gather up his supplies - he tucks the feather safely into his pocket - before shooting off, heading towards an emergency shelter he knows is close by. Every step is painful, and Sai dully notes that his left arm is almost unmovable now, and every breath feels like he's breathing in needles.

Somehow, he manages to reach the shelter, a mad tangle of brush and tree that had managed to resemble something like a cave type thing. Sweat is running down his face, and the warm liquid sliding down his right arm tells him he's reopened the wound, but there isn't any pain, and Sai doesn't really care.

He just manages to crash into the undergrowth before he passes out, the faint throb of his head and lungs fading into nothing.

-/-

In Konoha, the atmosphere is tense. It's not even seven in the morning yet, and Tsunade is swamped in paperwork, warding off headaches as she shifts through mission reports and other important documents. As she leans back in her chair, groaning at the soreness of her back, a paper catches her eye. Reaching forward, she tugs it out from under a pile of ANBU reports, skimming over it quickly.

At this moment, a blur of black and white whizzes past her window, and she swivels around fully, lips set in a straight line.

"Let it in," she orders, and the nin guarding the tower comply, and soon, she's reading an inky scroll, face hardening with every word she reads.

Shizune chooses to enter at this moment, two cups of coffee in her hands and Tonton trailing behind her. Before the young medic nin has a chance to speak, Tsunade raises her head and fixes her assistant with a glare.

"Tsunade -"

"Tell me the status of our major jonin and the chunin," the hokage cuts in, nervously smoothing out a piece of paper.

Shizune frowns, handing over a cup of coffee to Tsunade, who gratefully accepts it. As she lists off the jonin - Kakashi, Genma, Raidou, Aoba, Gai, Kurenai (and many more) - Tsunade realizes that _all of them_ are out on missions, and certainly cannot be called back on such a short notice.

"What about the chunin?" she demands, taking a swig of coffee like she would've drunk sake.

She's answered with a shrug as Shizune begins ists names. Tsunade runs a mental checklist in her head – those who are on missions, those unfit for the task, those she wouldn't trust with such a mission.

Swirling her coffee, Shizune pauses in thought. "I'm pretty sure Sai is on an ANBU mission, and Sasuke is in the village; didn't the council restrict him from leaving the village?"

From the look in her eyes, she's got more to say, but Tsunade slams her hands on the table, her previous gloomy mood gone. Tonton whimpers and ducks behind Shizune's legs. The young medic nin opens her mouth to ask, but Tsunade cuts her off.

"Send Uchiha Sasuke to me _right now,_ " she orders, and Shizune thinks she sees relief flooding the Hokage's tired eyes.

"Yes ma'am!"

-/-

" _What?"_

Tsunade scoffs, shoving a mission scroll into his hands. "Uchiha Sasuke, you heard me. I don't care what the council says; you're the only capable shinobi I have on hand right now - and I'm _not_ going to bother the ANBU with a simple retrieval mission when they've got more important stuff going on."

Sasuke looks down at the scroll incredulously, and is about to make a sharp retort when the Hokage fixes him with a glare. "You are _dismissed."_

He scowls, but bows anyways before leaving, landing in his room a few moments later. As he unfurls the scroll and reads through it, his eyes widen slightly. On the pale white paper is a simple mission statement: find Sai and bring him back; apparently the nin is injured heavily and poisoned. With a sigh, he runs his hands through his hair before moving to pack his travel kit.

Upon closer inspection of the call for help Sai had sent, Sasuke realizes it was written with his quill pen; the one he'd given to Sai. For a moment, he loses himself in the delicate swirl of chakra and ink, and it's only when his fingers swipe over dried blood does he snap out of his trance.

Ten minutes later, Sasuke is out into the forest, and he's sent snakes ahead with Sai's scent from the scroll, sharingan whirling to life in his eyes. At first, there's nothing, absolutely no trace of a trail, but Sai _is_ ANBU, and Sasuke strains harder.

He's rewarded with a faint glowing trail of chakra, Sai's, which meanders towards Lightning. His trail matched the report; Sai was on a mission to Lightning…but was stopped midway. Grimacing, Sasuke pushed forward.

After running for about ten minutes, the sound of voices catches his attention. Slowing down, Sasuke whispers a simple genjutsu, shimmering for a second before disappearing from view. Not five seconds later, he is rewarded by two masked men carrying spears and kunai. _Guards?_ He wonders, crouching lower onto the branch he is balancing on.

"Man," one of them crows. He's the shorter one, a little more on the chubby side, with wild brown hair and dark grey eyes. "Boss really showed that intruder, didn't he?"

The other snorts. This guard is tall and lanky, and the thin black mask that covers his face maps out the high cheekbones and hollowed cheeks. " 'Course he did, dummy. He's Boss for a reason, ya know? I betcha that ANBU nin is lying dead in a ditch somewhere," he snickers, banging the staff of his spear onto the ground.

Up above, Sasuke tenses, and his sharingan strains. Raising his fingers to his lips, he dispels the genjutsu and drops right in front of the two men. As he straightens up, he can feel the surprise and fear rolling off the two guards.

"W-w-who are you?" the short one yells bravely, although it comes out more like a squeak.

"The Lord does not tolerate intruders!" The tall one adds, brandishing his spear in a threatening manner.

Snortng softly, Sasuke slowly raises his head, and as the guard's eyes meet his, they freeze, trapped in a nightmare red world. "Well…you see….I'd like you to tell me about something…"

The beginning of a shout slices sharply through the air, but is cut off within milliseconds.

With a huff, he blinks his crimson eyes, turning around as the guards drop like rag dolls onto the ground. He doesn't even bother checking out the estate, because according to the two guards, who are lying unconscious and wounded in the bushes, Sai isn't there. He could always double back later, but right now, he thinks as he clenches the mission scroll in his hand, right now Sai is his first priority. From the borders of the estate, Sai's chakra trail is easier to follow; the pain must have loosened his control. Relaxing his sharingan a bit, Sasuke looks back at the mansion that looms behind him. Then, he shoots off into the forest.

The path Sai took is a confusing, winding path, no doubt done to try and throw off any pursuers. To stay on the right track, Sasuke has to strain his sharingan and hone his chakra to a thin preciseness. But, he manages to stay on track, and with each passing second, he pushes faster and faster.

Then, the trail stops. Sasuke, landing heavily on a tree branch, is about to take off again before realizing there is no more trail to follow. With a disgraceful yelp, he looses his footing and tumbles to the ground. Groaning, he shakes his head and looks around.

It's just like any other place in the forest- thick trees rise around him, ground scattered with large bushes and colorful…and trampled flowers. Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke leaps back up onto the tree, scouring the ground.

He sees footprints, unsteady and deep, dried blood in spatters next to trampled flowers. With a curse, he follows the physical trail; Sai must have run out of chakra by this point.

In a few short minutes, he reaches a large patch of overgrowth. It's a bush, nestled between a grove of trees, so thick that even the forest animals seemed to shy away from it's thorns and prickly leaves. But Sai's footprints lead to here, and Sasuke would be damned if he couldn't cut through a simple bush.

Reaching out a chakra-coated hand, Sasuke slowly parts the undergrowth, cutting through thick vines and sharp branches. When he's cleared enough to take a step forward, he realizes that there is a still body lying right in front of him. Covered in a thin layer of leaves is Sai, skin as pale as white ice and not moving, left hand curled around a feather.

Sasuke swears and leans forward.

-/-

The journey back to Konoha is a quiet one. Sai is slung against his back, asleep and breathing steadily. Having seen the poison that stained the Sai's skin, Sasuke knows that time is of utmost priority.

He clenches his teeth and jumps faster.

After only half an hour of rapid travelling, the towering gates of Konoha come into view. Digging into the folds of his clothes, Sasuke pulls out the all-purpose pass the Hokage had given him and lands heavily in front of the guards, flashing the chakra enhanced paper with the Hokage's signature at the two men.

"Go ahead," one of them says without another comment after glancing at the paper in his hand and the slumbering ninja on his back. Sasuke graces them with a slight tilt of his head and leaps away.

Soon, he arrives at the Konoha hospital, and Tsunade is waiting for him. She has her arms crossed, blond hair flying out behind her, and grins upon seeing him.

"No too much trouble, I hope?" she asks, ushering him in. He scoffs, falling into step behind her. They stop in front of a room and when the door opens, Sasuke sees Sakura standing in the middle of the room, pulling on a pair of medical gloves.

Tsunade knocks on the doorframe. "Sakura!" the Hokage calls, "They're here!"

The medic nin looks up and smiles; Sasuke takes that as an invitation to enter.

"Set him on the bed," Sakura commands.

As Tsunade fills in her protégé, with Sasuke commenting every so often, Sakura bustles around, making last minute preparations and quickly recording Sai's stats – doctor stuff that Sasuke can't even hope to understand.

All too soon, Sakura kicks him out with instructions to patch up and rest, then, she and Tsunade get to work.

-/-

After he's returned to his apartment and washed away the blood and sweat, Sasuke collapses onto his couch, burying his face into a pillow. Exhaustion settles in his bones – it's a novel feeling, something distinctly human, a far cry from the nebulous swirl of anger and hatred that had once plagued him.

He is about to drift off into sleep when a harsh tapping on his window jerks him awake. Scowling, Sasuke debates whether to ignore the intruder or to send a kunai straight through his window.

The tapping becomes more insistent. Sasuke swears he can hear the glass splinter.

When he pulls back his curtains, a jutsu already on the tip of his tongue, he's met face to face with an irritated messenger bird. Sasuke blinks at it – it's one of Sai's ink summons, elegant black strokes outlining white space. Curious, Sasuke checks for any potential traps, but comes up blank. Reluctantly, he opens his window and lets the bird flutter in.

There's a flare of chakra as the bird unravels into a flurry of ink and paper. Falling into his hands is a small scroll, black ink forming words across the canvas.

Sasuke reads it with a quirked eyebrow.

-/-

"I'm not going to ask," Sasuke says the next day, when it's visiting hours and Sakura has deemed Sai fit to receive visitors.

Sai shrugs, and holds up a copy of _Icha Icha Paradise_. "Kakashi-san told me it was a sure-fire way to make friends."

-/-

" _Shhh_ ," Sakura hisses, " _They're talking!_ "

Naruto scowls and pushes closer. "I want to listen _too!_ "

-/-

"Are we friends now?" Sai asks, sitting patiently on the hospital cot, pale hands folded over the white sheets. His eyes are flat, but his question is probing.

"No," Sasuke scoffs. What a preposterous idea.

The fruits basket on the bedside table is not mentioned, and neither man acknowledges the soft scuffling behind the hospital doors.

 **FIN**

* * *

a/n: I wrote about 75% of this within the first month or so that I started it, and then left it in my WIPs for a good four months. Yay writers block!

As always, please leave a review on your way out and tell me your thoughts.


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